The basic Medicaid Rule for nursing home residents is that they must all of their income, minus certain deductions, for their care. These deductions include a $60.00 per month personal needs allowance, a deduction for any uncovered medical cost (including medical insurance premiums) and, in case of a married applicant, an allowance for the spouse that continues to live at home if her or she needs income support. A deduction may also be allowed for a dependent child living at home. Continue reading →

When it comes to your senior parents, the choice to move them at any time can be a difficult one. So when your senior loved one has had a hospital or rehab stay, is it time to move them directly into assisted living, or should you wait? Continue reading →

When someone gets ready to move into an assisted living facility there will inevitably be a lot of paperwork involved. Much of that paperwork is fairly straightforward and need not be a cause for concern. However, amid the big stack of needed signatures, there is one document you must review carefully before signing. That document is the admissions agreement. An assisted living admissions agreement is really a contract. And like all contracts, there are important provisions you need to understand fully. In the October 2017 edition of Consumer Reports, Penelope Wang does an excellent job of listing the key provisions you need to understand when reviewing an admissions agreement. See “Putting the Assisted Living Facility Contract Under a Microscope,” Penelope Wang, Consumer Reports, October 2017. Continue reading →

The parent-child relationship is pretty well defined. Children generally don’t advise their parents. It’s the other way around. However, this dynamic can shift as parents get older and children become adults. This becomes especially prevalent when considering estate planning and elder law issues. Continue reading →

Elderlawanswers.com reports that the median cost of a private nursing home room in the United States has increased to $97,455.00 a year, up 5.5% from 2016, according to Genworth 2017 cost of care survey, which can be found at www.genworth.com/aboutus/industry-expertise/cost/of-care.html which the insurer conducts annually. Genworth reports that the median cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home is $85,775.00, up 4.44% from 2016. The rising prices is much larger than the 1.24% and 2.27% gains, respectively in 2016. Continue reading →